#ReadItMD13 Theme Week "Brilliant Book Bloggers" - Day 2: Loll Kirby at Storyseekers.co.uk

My goodness, that's tricky - depends which stack you're talking about! We've just received a copy of 'Sidney, Stella and the Moon', by Emma Yarlett and we're loving that. I'm also re-reading 'A Bit Lost', by Chris Haughton and 'The Foggy, Foggy Forest', by Nick Sharratt in preparation for a storytelling session I'm running next week. 

 I'm about to review four books that are making us happy on a daily basis for the blog - the 'Emily Brown' books by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton. I'm also hoping to review the 'Olivia' books by Ian Falconer and the 'Bugs' books by Beatrice Alemagna, as well as 'Naughty Bus', by Jan and Jerry Oke. 

 I doubt I'll get all that done but they're on my pile nonetheless!

ReadItDaddy: Give a very brief summary of why you think books are important to children...


Because reading books opens the doors to everything else in life. They can make you happy, help you understand sadness and encourage you to dream bigger than you might otherwise dare to hope. It's wonderful to read by yourself, snuggled up with a loved one or in a bigger group for discussion. There are enough books in the world for everyone to find stories that they love and I hope to do as much as I can to to make sure that as many children as possible grow up with a love for books and reading.


ReadItDaddy: If you had to name one booky person as your complete and utter book-idol (Writer, Illustrator, Publisher etc) who would it be and why?

My granny would be my ultimate book hero as she gave me my love of reading, but in terms of someone with whom everyone is familiar I'd probably go for Sir Quentin Blake. Obviously he is most famous for his collaboration with Roald Dahl, but he's illustrated for other wonderful authors and has written and illustrated his own books as well. He has taught illustration to others and was the first Children's Laureate. Most admirably, he is still working in his eighties - what a legend! His drawing style seems so relaxed and comfortable which just draws you in and the books he worked on were such a huge feature of my own childhood.

ReadItDaddy: Name 5 books you think everyone should have in their book case (childrens OR adult book, or a mix if you like!)


I'm going to stick to children's books, I think - mainly to narrow the field a little bit, but also because my aim with Story Seekers is to encourage reading for pleasure from birth and these are books that I think would be brilliant to share in those magical early years.

 They're all very well known and very well loved already, but I can't imagine a childhood without them. I could probably have chosen any book by these authors and illustrators and you'd have been onto a winner, but I've stuck rigidly to the rules and limited myself to just the allotted total of five!

• 'Dogger', by Shirley Hughes - this definitely reminds me of my own childhood and I'm so glad that my children love it as much as I do. It's a heartwarming and sniffle-inducing story about the loss of a favourite toy and an incredibly noble act on the part of a sibling. Book perfection.

• 'Owl Babies', by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson - I love owls and the illustrations in this book are simply gorgeous. However, I've also chosen it as it was the first book that really made me see how powerful stories are in helping children to deal with new and potentially scary things. When C started pre-school he was understandably unhappy with me leaving him. We read this book many times a day and even now I know it by heart, so every time I picked him I would swoop him up in a huge hug and say, "And she came!" (referring to when the mummy owl returns to her babies in the book). I could see how genuinely comforting this was for C and it helped us both with the transition.

• 'You Choose', by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt - this isn't a book that was around when I was little, but both my sons have got SO much out of it. There are very few words, a multitude of pictures and an infinite number of possibilities for your imagination to go wild. One of the very best books for creating your own stories.

• 'Matilda', by Roald Dahl - a determined and delightful little girl who believes in the power of books, an amazing teacher and a little dose of magic to help her escape some pretty horrid things.  This book made me feel super cool for being a bookworm :-)

• 'Peepo', by Janet and Allan Ahlberg - this is one of the first books I remember being in my own bookcase as a child and was among the first that I read to myself (actually it was to my doll, Sally) once I got going with reading. I then read it to both my children whilst I was pregnant with them and then from the moment they were born. Timeless and wonderful.